The emergence of the cloud for computing applications has increased the demand for off-site installations, known as data centers, that store data and run applications accessed by remotely connected computer device users. Such data centers typically have massive numbers of devices such as servers, switches and storage devices to store and manage data and so they may be accessed in a convenient manner by remote computer users. A typical data center has physical rack or chassis structures with attendant power and communication connections. Such racks may hold multiple network devices, that may be swapped in and out of the rack.
A typical rack includes a chassis that has side walls joined by a bottom wall and a top wall. The rack may also include various electronic support components that may be used to support devices that are installed in the rack. For example, a rack system may include a power distribution board that includes power supply units to supply power to the devices in the rack. A bus bar may be provided to provide support for cables to direct power from the power supply units to the devices in the rack. Each of the side walls has multiple registration features such as a groove or a tab that are periodically spaced apart. Multiple shelves are installed between the side walls on the registration features. Once installed, each shelf may hold different network devices. Different network devices such as servers, switches, routers, and the like are carried in removable sled structures that may be inserted on one of the shelves in the rack. The size of typical sled components is based in standard height units. For example, height may be expressed in terms of “U”. Thus a standard 1U rack-mount server is 1.75 inches high, and a 2U server measures three inches in height. Typical network devices may be designed with different standard units of height.
Current racks are limited by the height of the side walls. This arrangement works well when the network components in the rack are the same devices or are different devices having identical sizes. However, such an arrangement inherently restricts the inner space to efficiently hold varying numbers of sleds. Additional component sleds cannot be added to a rack that has already been filled with component sleds. Further, since network components and their corresponding sleds often have different sizes (e.g., different widths and heights), different chassis designs must be used for different components. In order to accommodate different height devices or additional devices in one chassis, the chassis must be replaced, thereby increasing expense and sacrificing operational efficiency. These situations are problematic, as network equipment is continually updated, and data center administrators may seek to add new equipment. Further, new network equipment may have different sizes, thus requiring data center administrators to change racks to accommodate desired new equipment.
Thus, there is a need for an adaptable chassis that can be easily adjusted to accommodate different sleds having different heights. There is also a need for a chassis that allows for the fixed placement of power supply units and bus bars, but also accommodates different sized devices. There is a further need for an adaptable chassis that allows for modular adjustment to accommodate additional devices.